Month: July 2021

The U.N. Children’s Fund warns an estimated 100,000 children in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray province are at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition over the next 12 months.  This is a tenfold increase over the annual average caseload in this war-torn region.

A UNICEF official who has just returned from Tigray says her agency’s worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children in this war-torn region have been confirmed.

Marixie Mercado says the malnutrition crisis has worsened because of extensive systematic damage to the food, water, health care, nutrition and sanitation systems upon which children and their families depend for their survival.

She says a massive scale up of humanitarian assistance in the region is needed to reverse this catastrophic crisis.

“We need unfettered access into Tigray and across the region, in order to provide support that children and women urgently need,” Mercado said. “Right now, we have just 6,900 cartons of life-saving ready-to-eat therapeutic foods in our warehouses in Tigray.  That is enough to treat severe malnutrition in just 6,900 children.”

Mercado visited several previously inaccessible areas in Tigray, places that have virtually had no assistance over the past months.  She says she was appalled by the overcrowded, unsanitary sites hosting displaced families—conditions that are ripe for disease outbreaks.

But what struck her most, she says, was the acute suffering and mental anguish of these people who have had to endure multiple atrocities.

“One young woman who is a survivor of sexual assault, she watched her grandmother get killed,” Mercado said. “She was raped by several men as she watched her nine-month-old baby being tossed around by other men … It is not the assault itself that is the worst part, but it is the psychological damage that people now have to deal with for a very long time.”

Mercado reports the recent uptick of fighting in neighboring Afar and Amhara regions is creating another catastrophic situation for civilians in the region.  She says nearly 1.5 million people already are facing acute food insecurity.

She warns child malnutrition will rise beyond current alarming levels and leading to more deaths if insufficient humanitarian assistance reaches this widening area of conflict.

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega sprinted the last lap to beat world record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and win a shock Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10,000 meters on Friday.

The 21-year-old Barega powered down the home straight to cross the line in 27 minutes 43.22 seconds, ahead of world champion Cheptegei in 27:43.63.

Jacob Kiplimo, the youngest-ever Ugandan Olympian when he ran the 5,000 heats in Rio as a 15-year-old, posted a time of 27:43.88 to secure bronze in the first athletics medal event of the Games.

Barega, the 2019 5,000-meter world championship silver medalist who set the second-fastest 10,000-meter time of the year in June, was applauded by the Ethiopian delegation as he smiled broadly on a victory lap with his country’s flag draped around his shoulders.

Cheptegei said he was experiencing mixed emotions.

“I have two feelings. One is that I’m very happy to have won an Olympic silver medal today,” he told reporters. “But the other side of me is really not satisfied with the result because I came here expecting to win a gold.”

Cheptegei also admitted that 2021 had been tough for him.

“This year was really a very difficult year for me in terms of racing,” he said. “It’s the year that I have lost all the focus, all the belief. There was a lot of pressure and I was feeling it in every moment.”

Uganda’s Stephen Kissa acted as the early pacemaker before dropping out a little over halfway through the race.

“We had a plan for me to go ahead to make it a fast race,” Kissa told reporters. “I thought they were going to follow me but when I looked round they were not there.”

Cheptegei led briefly before dropping back into the pack and Barega seized his chance, moving among the leaders in the last third of the race before hitting the front with a surge on the last lap to secure his surprise victory.

Source: Voice of America

Mozambique’s defense minister says South African troops are expected this week to join operations meant to counter insurgents in northern Cabo Delgado province.

Defense Minister Jaime Neto says terrorists are being cornered as a result of intense operations by Mozambican and Rwanda forces in Cabo Delgado.

Briefing the media in Maputo on Friday, the defense minister said it was difficult to count the number of insurgents killed in the operations.

He was referring to an announcement made by Rwandan authorities in Kigali about the killing of 14 terrorists in Cabo Delgado during an operation this week.

Rwandan soldiers, who arrived in Cabo Delgado about a week ago, are fighting alongside Mozambican troops under the framework of a bilateral agreement.

In addition to Rwanda, Mozambique will have support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), following the approval by regional leaders of a “joint standby force” during a summit in Maputo last month.

Neto said Rwanda and Mozambique are operating together but SADC will start. The contingents will arrive. He said I think the South African contingent will start very soon, within this week, which is significant but also a contingent from Botswana is coming.  He said an Angolan contingent will also arrive and part of it is already on the ground.

The number of soldiers the regional bloc will send to Mozambique is not publicly known, but experts from the SADC, who were in Cabo Delgado, proposed that the mission should have around 3,000 soldiers.

Armed groups have terrorized Cabo Delgado province since 2017, with some attacks being claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Humanitarian organizations estimate that more than 3,100 people have been killed and up to a million others displaced.

Source: Voice of America